Tiv (or Tivi) is an ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in West Africa. The group constitutes approximately 3.5% of Nigeria's total population, and number about 6.5 million individuals throughout Nigeria and Cameroon. The Tiv are the 4th largest ethnic group in Nigeria. The Tiv language is spoken by about 7 million people in Nigeria with a few speakers in Cameroon. Most of the language's Nigerian speakers are found in Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa States of Nigeria. The language is also widely spoken in the Nigerian States of Plateau, Nasarawa and Cross River, as well as the FCT Abuja. It is part of the Southern Bantoid Tivoid family, a branch of Benue-Congo and ultimately of the Niger-Congo phylum. In precolonial times, the Fulani ethnic group referred to the Tiv as "Munchi" (also sometimes written Munshi e.g. Duggan 1932), a term not accepted by Tiv people. They depend on agricultural produce for commerce and life.
Video Tiv people
History
The Tiv say they emerged into their present location from the southeast. It is claimed that the tiv wandered through southern, south-central and west-central Africa before arriving at the savannah lands of West African Sudan via the River Congo and Cameroon Mountains. "Coming down," as they put it, they met the Fulani, with whom they still recognize a joking relationship. The earliest recorded European contact was in 1852, when Tiv were found on the banks of the Benue. In 1879 their occupation of the riverbanks was about the same as in 1950. British occupying forces entered Tivland from the east in 1906, when they were called in to protect a Hausa and Jukun enclave that Tiv had attacked. The Tiv said in 1950 that they had defeated this British force, then later invited the British in. The southern area was penetrated from the south; what southern Tiv call "the eruption" of the British there occurred in 1911.
The Tiv came into contact with European culture during the colonial period. During November 1907 to spring 1908, an expedition of the Southern Nigeria Regiment led by Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Trenchard's came into contact with the Tiv. Trenchard brought gifts for the tribal chiefs. Subsequently, roads were built and trade links established between Europeans and the Tiv. But before construction of roads began, a missionary named Mary Slessor went throughout the region seeing to the people's needs.
Maps Tiv people
Social and political organisation
Most Tiv have a highly developed sense of genealogy, with descent being reckoned patrilineally. Ancestry is traced to an ancient individual named Tiv, who had two sons; all Tiv consider themselves a member either of Ichongo (descendants of son Chongo) or of Ipusu (descendants of son Pusu). Ichongo and Ipusu are each divided into several major branches, which in turn are divided into smaller branches. The smallest branch, or minimal lineage, is the ipaven. Members of an ipaven tend to live together, the local kin-based community being called the "tar". This form of social organisation, called a segmentary lineage, is seen in various parts of the world, but it is particularly well known from African societies (Middleton and Tait 1958). The Tiv are the best known example in West Africa of a society of segmentary lineage, as documented by Laura Bohannan (1952) and by Paul and Laura Bohannan (1953); in East Africa, the best known example is the Nuer, documented by E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1940).
The Tiv had no administrative divisions and no chiefs nor councils. Leadership was based on age, influence and affluence. The leaders' functions were to furnish safe conduct, arbitrate disputes within their lineages, sit on moots and lead their people in all external and internal affairs.
These socio-political arrangements caused great frustration to British colonial attempts to subjugate the population and establish administration on the lower Benue. The strategy of indirect rule, which the British felt to be highly successful in controlling Hausa and Fulani populations in Northern Nigeria, was ineffective in a segmentary society like the Tiv (Dorward 1969). Colonial officers tried various approaches to administration, such as putting the Tiv under the control of the nearby Jukun, and trying to exert control through the councils of elders ("Jir Tamen"); these met with little success. The British administration in 1934 divided the Tiv into Clans, Kindreds, and Family Groups. The British appointed native heads of these divisions as well. These administrative divisions are gradually assuming a reality which they never had originally.
Members of the Tiv group are found in many areas across the globe, such as the United States and United Kingdom. In these countries, they hold unions, known as MUT (Mzough U Tiv, or Mutual Union of Tiv in English), where members can assemble and discuss issues concerning their people across the world, but especially back in Nigeria. The arm of the MUT serving the United States of America is known as MUTA (Mzough U Tiv ken Amerika, or Mutual Union of the Tiv in America), for instance.
Before the introduction of printed material, radio, film and television, mass communication in Nigeria was done through the indigenous people with the use of traditional political systems of communication. The rulers and the chiefs governed their ethnic communities and communicated with them through various channels.
Tiv music and communication
Locally made musical instruments were traditionally used for political and ceremonial communication. The key instruments follow.
Kakaki
The Kakaki is a royal trumpet used in many West African groups in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso. This is an instrument used to convey special messages to the people of the community, such messages as the newborn child of the King, his naming ceremony, the crowning of a new king, to gather people together during the marriage ceremony of the king and the king's son's marriage ceremony. This instrument was used to convey all the messages to the people to assemble at the square for the ceremony, as well as when there is an enemy attack on the community, a warning sound of the Kakaki is blown to alert those whom can defend the society and every citizen to be alert.
Ilyu
A light wooden instrument, it was used to pass messages to the people of the village, probably for the invitation of the people for a particular meeting of the elders at the king's palace or for the people to gather at the market square for a message from or by the king. It is now used as an instrument to indicate the death of someone.
Indyer
A heavy wooden instrument carved out of mahogany trunk. It is used especially during festivals of masquerades and yam festivals with music to pass messages for the ceremonies. This is a celebration of a good harvest for the year.
Akya
It is used together with Agbande (drums) combined with Ageda at festivals to pass a message across to the people for a call for the display of culture.
Adiguve
It's an instrument like a violin, used for music and dances in conjunction with Agbande (Agbande) at festivals and dance occasions, sometimes to announce the death of a leader or an elder of the community, during this period it is played sorrowfully for the mourning of the dead, most time it is played funerals.
Gbande
Agbande (plural), a set of crafted wooden musical instrument used to compliment agbande at festivals, this is particularly large and it is played by the young men of the community, the special drum beats communicates special messages and music for the festivals to come and during the festivals, for instance, signifies a royal occasions such as the coronation and funeral.
Ortindin (Ortyom) - Messenger
Usually, he is chosen by the elders of the community to do errands for the elders and the leader of the community. He is sent out to the heads of the neighbouring families for a crucial meeting at the head of all the leaders of the community.
Kolugh ku Bua - Cow Horn
This is an instrument made out of cow horns, like in my community, there are farmers' associations that use this instrument when they have job to do, probably they are invite to make ridges on a piece of land, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the association will use this medium to wake up the members for the work they have for that day.
Indigenous communication is not only vertical, from the rulers to the subjects, it is also horizontal. Individuals communicate with society through physical and metaphysical means. A farm owner, for example, may mount a charm conspicuously on his farm in order to stress private ownership and to scare off human intruders.
The fear of herbalists and witches influences social behaviour considerably.
Rainmakers communicate their power to disrupt events through various psychological means. Village sectors in Africa communicate mostly via the market-place of ideas contributed by traditional religion, observances, divination, mythology, age-grades, the Chiefs courts, the elder's square, secret and title societies, the village market square, the village drum(gbande) men, indeed the total experiences of the villager in his environment.
Unlike the mass media, access to the native media is culturally determined and not economic. Only the selected group of young men or the elders can disseminate information generally. The young only disseminate general information about events and the social welfare of their communities using the media mentioned above.
The Tiv people of Benue state still practise some of this traditional system of communication, using the KAKAIS, AGBANDE, INDYER, ADIGUVE and ILYU etc., nevertheless the increase in the western world media is threatening the cultural communication system.
Many of the communities in Benue state still use these instruments to convey messages to the people of their community, and it is helping a great deal, since there is a language barrier to the people with the introduction of the western world means of communication, using the western language (English) to convey information.
Notable people
Politicians and activists
- Jerome Tilley-Gyado, business-man and philanthropist
- Joseph Tarka, politician, human rights activist
- Barnabas Gemade, former PDP party chairman
- Aper Aku, politician
- George Akume, former senate minority leader
- Iyorchia Ayu, former senate president
- Chaha Biam, former speaker house of representative
- Gabriel Suswam, politician
- Samuel Ortom, Current State Governor
- James Ayatse, Tor-tiv
- Daniel Saror, former minority leader
- Michael Aondoakaa, former attorney general of Nigeria
- Moses Adasu, politician
- A.I. Katsina-Alu, former chief justice of Nigeria
Military and law enforcement
- Gideon Orkar
- Victor Malu, former chief of army staff. War general
- Joseph Akahan, former chief of army staff
- Joseph Akaagerger
- John Mark Inienger, former commander ECOMOG
- Farida Mzamber Waziri, former efcc boss
- John Kpera
Sports icons
- Terna Suswam, football player
- Dominic Iorfa, football player
- Timothy Anjembe, football player
- David Tyavkase, football player
- Dominic Iorfa (footballer, born 1995)
- Jeff Varem, NBA D-league player
- Terna Nande, American football player
- Apollo Crews, WWE wrestler
- Francisca Ordega, Nigerian national team soccer player
- Fanendo Adi
- Barnabas Imenger Jr., Nigerian super eagles striker
Cultural Icons
- Akiga Sai autobiographer and historian
See also
- Tiv language
- Ate-u-tiv
Notes
References
- Abraham, R.C. The Tiv People. Lagos: 1933.
- Anifowose, R. Violence and Politics in Nigeria: The Tiv and the Yoruba Experience. New York: NOK, 1982.
- Arinze, F. Africans and Christianity. Ejiofor, Rev. L. ed. Nsukka: Optimal Computer Solutions Ltd., 1990.
- Ayoade, J.A. Agbaje, A.A. eds African Traditional Political Thought and Institutions. Lagos: Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), 1989.
- Bohannan, Paul J. & Laura. The Tiv of Central Nigeria London: International African Institute, 1953.
- Bohannan, Laura (1952) "A Genealogical Charter" Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 22(4): pp. 301-315
- David, T. ed. "Political Aspects of Tiv Social Organisation" in Tribe Without Rules. London: 1958.
- Dorward, David C. (1969). "The development of the British colonial administration among the Tiv, 1900 1949". African Affairs 68:316 333.
- Downes, R.M. The Tiv Tribe. Kaduna: Government Printer, 1933.
- East, R. ed. Akiga's Story. London: 1965.
- Ehusani, G.O. An Afro-Christian Vision "Ozovehe!." Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1991.
- Evans Pritchard, E.E. (1940). The Nuer. Oxford Univ. Press, New York.
- Gbor, Capt. J.W.T. Mdugh U Tiv Man Mnyer Ve Ken Benue. Zaria: Gaskiya Publishing Corporation, 1978.
- Hagher, I.H. The Tiv Kwagh-Hir. Ibadan: CBAAC, 1990.
- Ikenga-Metuh, E. Comparative Studies of African Traditional Religion. Onitsha: Imico Publishers, 1987.
- Ikima, O. ed. The Groundwork of Nigerian History. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books Nig Ltd. (for the Historical Society of Nigeria), 1980.
- Jibo, M. Tiv Politics Since 1959. Katsina-Ala: Mandate International Limited, 1993.
- Jibo, Mvendaga. Chieftaincy and Politics: The Tor Tiv in the Politics and Administration of Tivland. Frankfurt: Peter Lang AG, 2001. 325 pp. Europäische Hochschulschriften, Reihe 31: Politikwissenschaft Vol. 422
ISBN 978-3-631-36816-9 / US-ISBN 978-0-8204-4801-5 pb.
- Makar, T. A History of Political Change among the Tiv in the 19th and 20th Century. Enugu: Forth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd., 1994.
- Makar, T. Tiv People in Power Game in Nierian Politic Circa 1950-1983. Makurdi: Government Printer.
- Mbiti, J.S. African Religious and Philosophy. London: Heinemann Press, 1970.
- Middleton, John and David Tait, editors (1958) Tribes Without Rulers: Studies in African Segmentary Systems. Routledge & Paul, London.
- Rubingh, E. Sons of Tiv. Grand Rapids: Baker House, 1969.
- Tseayo, J.I. Conflict and Incorporation in Nigeria: The Integration of the Tiv. Zaria: Gaskiya Corporation Limited, 1975.
- Vanguard Newspaper. Friday December 7, 2001.
- Vanguard Newspaper. Wednesday December 5, 2001.
- Bohannan, P. Africa. Vol. XXIV, No.1, 1954.
- Dorward, D.C. African Affairs. Vol. 68 No.273, London: 1969.
- Ewelu, I.B. West African Journal of Philosophical Studies. Vol.2, December 1999.
- Ikima, O. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria Vol. VII No. 1, 1973.
- http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Tiv-History-and-Cultural-Relations.html#ixzz4x6ZfwkpM
Unpublished works
- Akever, E.T. The Effects of Yamishe in Tiv Traditional Marriage Culture. March 2001.
- Akpagher, T. J. Israelite Monotheism in Comparison with the Monotheism of the Tiv Traditional Religion. June 1994.
- Makar, T. A History of Political Change among the Tiv in the 19th and 20th Century. 1975.
- Ode, R. Developing Christian leadership in Contemporary Tiv Community. 1991.
- Sorkaa, A.P. The Contribution of Traditional Rulers to Rural Development in Nigeria up to the 21st Century. Paper presented at the National Conference on the Nigerian State at A.B.U. Zaria, 1987.
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